First off I would like to thank everyone for all of their support and encouragement in this endeavor. All of your feedback and support has really been inspiring for me and has continued to encourage me to push my boundaries and increase my skills. I feel like I am moving toward my goal of being a full time ceramicist on the wings of everybody’s excitement and good wishes.

Since I’ve written last I have had a number of adventures and I wanted to share them with you.

“How many atmospheric rivers are we getting?”

For those of you that don’t live in California, while the rest of the country was getting snowstorms, here in the Bay Area we had unusually mild weather…. for a while…. and then we got hit by the wettest and stormiest weather that we’ve had in 20 years with not one, not two, but three atmospheric rivers, bring with them dangerous winds, flooding, and power outages. For me it was a challenge to find time to fire my kiln and complete the project that I’ve been working on for the last month. My project was called “Trials and Tribulations” and consisted of making and testing new glaze combinations on over 30 mugs. The challenge was that Trogdor the Kiln is located outside (under shelter, but not completely weather proof).

My initial goal was to fire on Christmas Eve, but that was hampered by the first storm. I waited a week with no let up on the rain before I got frustrated enough to set up a tarp and attempt the firing anyway. Since then I have managed to fire a glaze firing on New Years Eve and a bisque firing a week after that. Both were successful! Thank the Kiln and Weather Gods.

Trials and Tribulations

My most recent project has been to test out a number of new glaze combinations on about 35 mugs that I have recently thrown. My goals were to not only test the looks and viability of the various combinations, but to see how the colors felt for particular devotional uses, which combinations felt right for which Gods/spirits. All in all I tried out about 25 different combinations and out of those found about five combinations that really stood out. I’m very interested in hearing what y’all think about them and which Gods/spirits you think they might be geared towards.

The colors:

Nebula

veil of night

sargasso

Lodestone

Ancient moss

Next project

The Trials and Tribulations project was a lot of fun and I feel like I got some extraordinary color combos to work with. My skills at throwing and adding handles to mugs is getting better and I once again have stock to sell. From here, my next project will be …………

100 bowls

In order to improve my throwing skills and get more comfortable throwing and decorating bowls, I am currently in the process of throwing and glazing 100 bowls. Unlike the Wedding Mead Cup project, where I was attempting to throw cups that were as alike as I was able to, the 100 Bowls project will be me really feeling out the process of bowl making, becoming comfortable throwing a variety of different types of bowls, and working on expanding my decorative abilities as well.

Along with making the 100 bowls, I will also be taking requests from individuals are learning to build different types of pieces. The first one that I attempted was a replica of a Greek Kylix vase/offering bowl. I have built the first version of it and am currently waiting to fire it. Pictures will be coming.

In the meantime, I’m selling all of the mugs and have put a selection of them up on my website here (https://www.strixian.com/shop)

Thank you all for all your input and support. I feel blessed that I am able to share this adventure with you all.

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Trials and Tribulations (kiln firing between atmospheric rivers)